The primeval antiquities of Denmark by Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae(
Book
)36
editions published
between
1813
and
2015
in
English and Danish
and held by
209 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
The antiquarian William J. Thoms (1803-85) is probably best remembered today for founding the journal Notes and Queries and
for having coined the term 'folk lore'. He undertook the translation of this work by the Danish archaeologist Jens Worsaae
(1821-85) because he felt (as Worsaae says himself) that 'the primeval national antiquities of the British islands have never
hitherto been brought into a scientific arrangement'. Believing that this had arisen partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing
between some of the many different cultures in Britain's past, Thoms also felt that British interpretations of finds were
too frequently beset by 'fanciful theories'. Cultural ties between Britain and Denmark during the Dark Ages meant that finds
in Denmark could illuminate British discoveries, and vice versa: Worsaae's work could therefore guide future excavations in
Britain. Highly influential and illustrated with woodcuts, this translation first appeared in 1849